The A word (no, it's not what you think)

So by now every one in the family knows Logan and Charlie are on the Autism Spectrum. Logan is going to have a harder and longer time learning his social and verbal skills than his brother Charlie. That being said, they are improving leaps and bounds in Pre-school and are impressing their teacher and the specialist every week.

For me I am trying to get into a ABA program (Applied Behavioral Analysis) with the help of the school and their specialist. ABA is basically a learning and teaching form of different approaches of skills that a child with learning disabilities can adapt to or learn from and use in everyday life (depending on what the child is needing at the time, potty-training, drinking from a cup, looking a the person who's talking to them, etc..) This is not a Fix-It program (some people think it is) but it can be a Great tool for the boys to learn in a way that is fun and social, if they enjoy doing it, I'm all for it!

I have found that some days are a lot harder than others (for any parent)and not to take the small things they can do for granted. I am their advocate and will be their voice and try to be as clear as possible to do what is best and also push them to their limit without major meltdowns.

So summer is coming and I'm going to see if I can get them into a swimming(getting used to deeper water) class. Trying to find a patient person who is skilled at working with disabilities and or Autistic children. Wish me luck!!

It's a great day to have a Parade!

The flowers were out and so was the sun! Beautiful weather at Long beach and they had their annual May day Parade, little did we know we would get by the end of the day (Bin Ladin met his maker). We enjoyed the boardwalk and people flying their kites, bikes and horses.

So this is our 10th anniversary, that's right we are getting OLD!! No kiddos on this trip, but they had fun at Grandma and Papa Protheros House while we were gone for the day and a half. The trip back was raining and very windy. We packed up and headed back to our boys and back to reality!! D'oh!

No Eggagerations!

Off we went to Mike and Sarah's for an Awesome Brunch and Egg hunt. We had a smaller turnout of children(colds) but that just meant more eggs for the rest. A slow start for the boys but soon enough we had Charlie picking up eggs in no time. Logan had the idea that we were making him clean up the yard (in a way he's totally right) he took a little longer but started to get the idea to keep the eggs in the basket and there's Candy in those eggs! Jackpot!!

Corbin, made out like a bandit!! The slow start of the boys and one other much younger boy helped Corbin get in his opportunity, he did great and found some pretty hard eggs hiding in the trees and bushes. The rain did not dampen their spirits to going outside and the hunt was over just in time for the rain to start again.

Too Big for the Cribs

It has come to my attention the boys are growing at super speed and as such we need to buy bigger beds(coming soon). Oh of course, they are about an 1 apart in height so Two beds at the same time is what we have to do. I think they will enjoy their new found freedom and explore the new rules of staying in bed. Wish us All luck on the Milestone of bigger and better things!

Charlie

Logan

I like to eat,eat,eat apples and ...

We have dusting mits on our feet and they're fun! Oh but we have to walk carefully!!

Our long time friend Megan has a babyshower for her daughter Evelyn (3months) she lives farther away so we had one at her mothers house (better late than never). We had lots of fun and Evelyn liked the company.

Okay, so we have apples and mud. Not the same day but intertaining non the less. Both boys plow through apples like nobody's business. So I have to keep an eye on them or they eat the whole thing. Yes the whole apple!

Finally the mud! We had a bad day at school : teacher had a baby so we are with a sub(shes good but not their teacher), confrences are this week so the shedule is off, it's been raining on and off for months! So whats a boy to do but throw a Huge fit while leaving school. Yeah, melt-down city came and apparently I'm the mayor of this place and have to find something to get Logan to come back to normal-ville. Answer: MUD!!

The mud sutes them, don't ya think!

More words, less pictures.

So it's March and good thing to, the Wet weather is beyond annoying. Now we have wind and rain already hitting us early this month, at lest it's not snowing!Yet. That being said I cannot wait for the sun and see a blue sky( lasting more than 10min's).


Here in the west we had to be on a tsunami watch because of the Japan 8.9 earthquake luckily it had been only 4 ft higher than normal thankfully not many people went out to see the larger waves and became victims themselves. Unfortunately I can't say the same for Japan, so sad and all you can do is watch on the t.v. what is happening. For the people who don't know, there is a military base set in Japan and lots of family and friends are waiting for loved ones to reach them. I think this is so hard to even wrap our heads around, so I guess we pray for finding survivors and hope they work together in rebuilding their country, brick by brick.


On a much lighter note, Charlies new hero is Alex Trebek, he pretends to talk to contestants and claps for himself and then he mixes in Wheel of Fortune and says a letter and pretends the couch cushion's are the letter screens. Very funny, no pics he's camera shy when he does this.


Logan has been more vocal, not verbal though he has been trying more and more lately. He is still very much into Thomas and is starting to put letters together and finding out that they make words, my little sponges. Also Logan has been more interested in looks at the books he picks out and taking more time to go through them before bedtime, Yeah.

Pictures aren't so easy as they look!!

This is the best picture out of over 50 taken by my patient friend(Kristin) who help take some family photos for me. Bless her heart, we had Logan doing pretty well and Charlie wanted nothing to do with it.

So all in all, I think we did pretty well for two 3yr olds and no one ended up in a white jacket. I hope this helps any one who has kiddos that a picture is more than a moment in time, it's proof that you survived the day! Good luck and God speed!!